OIG Releases FY 2006 Work Plan
Each year, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services publishes a Work Plan
outlining the various projects to be addressed during the next
fiscal year. The Work Plan serves as public notice of the OIG's
audit, investigation and enforcement priorities for the coming year.
The work plan for fiscal year 2006 identifies several
hospital-focused projects, including reviews of inpatient
rehabilitation facilities payments, critical access hospitals,
inpatient prospective payment system wage indices, Diagnostic
related group coding and outpatient department payments. In
addition, the OIG will review administration of the Medicare Part D
program, Medicare managed care programs and state Medicaid
programs. Watch for an upcoming OHA Bulletin for more details. The
entire plan is available at
http://oig.hhs.gov/publications/docs/workplan/2006/WorkPlanFY2006.pdf.
(Mary Gallagher,
maryg@ohanet.org)
JCAHO Credentialing, Privileging Standards
Up for Review
Hospitals have until Dec. 5 to comment on the Joint Commission on
Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations’ (JCAHO) proposed
revisions to the process of credentialing and privileging licensed
independent practitioners and other practitioners. These revisions
reflect the input of a JCAHO task force, which proposed four new
concepts for incorporation into the standards to achieve a more
objective and evidence-based process: performance monitoring,
proctoring, simulation and continuous clinical practice evaluation.
Visit
www.jcaho.org/accredited+organizations/field_reviews.htm to view
a field review. JCAHO also recently clarified the numbering system
used in the field review of the draft credentialing and privileging
standards, noting that no Medical Staff standards have been deleted.
Only the standards in question were posted and they were numbered
1.0 through 8.0. Please forward any comments to Rosalie Weakland at
rosaliew@ohanet.org. (Rosalie
Weakland,
rosaliew@ohanet.org)
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Legislation
Introduced on Board Consolidation
As a result of HB 66, the state biennial budget, 20 state boards and
commissions were to be consolidated over the biennium in an attempt
to save on administrative costs. While work groups of the State
Board and Commissions Consolidation Transition Team continue to
hammer out the consolidation effort, Sen. Kevin Coughlin (R-Cuyahoga
Falls) introduced legislation earlier this month to reverse this
change. SB 222 would eliminate the consolidation of specified
health-related regulatory boards within the Department of Health,
other specified regulatory boards and commissions within the
Department of Commerce, and the Ohio Medical Transportation Board
within the Department of Public Safety and to make appropriations to
these Boards and commissions for fiscal year 2007. Coughlin has
indicated that the proposal to consolidate the boards would result
in diminished service and increased bureaucracy within the agencies.
(Bridget Gargan,
bridgetg@ohanet.org )
Hospitals’ Heartbeat
A 2005 nominee for the
Albert
E. Dyckes Health
Care Worker of the Year Award
Erin Riehle, RN,
MSN
Co-Founder & Clinical Director of the Division of Disability
Cincinnati
Children’s Hospital Medical Center
Photo
A look inside
Erin’s nomination –
“Over
seven years ago, there was no one on the payroll at Cincinnati
Children's Hospital with any sort of visible disability. This fact
had not gone unobserved by Erin Riehle, director of the emergency
department.
Although Cincinnati
Children’s was having a big push for diversity, there was one group
missing - people who have special needs. Erin Riehle wanted to
change all that…and she did. Today, 70 people with some form of
disability - ranging from mental retardation to cerebral palsy to
traumatic head injury - are working at Cincinnati Children's in a
wide range of capacities. Some work in shipping, some in stocking,
others in couriering specimens to the lab. Now, if a child with
special needs comes to the medical center for care, they will
see people working here who could be examples for them.”
JCAHO Not
to Sell Data Analyses to Third Parties
The
Board of Commissioners of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of
Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) has reaffirmed its commitment to
using data analyses and reporting to measure and encourage quality
improvement in accredited health care organizations—opting not to
sell performance measurement data analyses to third party private
payers as it could detract from JCAHO’s central objective.
Accreditation contract language outlining this decision will be
drafted and made available to any accredited organization wishing to
incorporate the information into its contract with JCAHO. This
decision follows several months of controversy over data-mining.
JCAHO
will also continue to work with the American Hospital Association to
resolve concerns related to accessing patient-level performance data
for ongoing accreditation-related measurement activities. The JCAHO
board affirmed the JCAHO’s continuing commitment to maintaining full
compliance with HIPAA requirements when handling patient-level data.
(Rosalie Weakland,
rosaliew@ohanet.org)
Thursday,
November 24, 2005
OHA offices are closed for the Thanksgiving holiday.
© 2001-2008 OHA. Last updated
January 03, 2008.
Please direct comments, corrections or additions to: oha@ohanet.org
614.221.7614.
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